There was another consideration: bands of warriors roaming around out of his personal control might be lax in whom they chastised. The invading army could not have beaten Gelimer so speedily without aid, such as freely given supplies and intelligence of the enemy. Anything that might alienate the people who had behaved so well had to be avoided and that included unnecessary massacres that might kill the wrong people. The amnesty was to apply to all Vandals and only those who refused it would suffer.
‘A messenger, Excellence.’
Flavius looked up from the papers he was examining to respond, grateful that his labours might be interrupted given he found them tedious. Old property rolls, census returns and taxation receipts for the region in which he now sat, the very stuff by which bureaucrats run empires, though these were out of date. They were not to his taste but they had to be studied so that he could put in place the officials necessary to run the province without handing them the keys to the coffers and an easy way to line their own pockets.
‘A Vandal who seeks a personal audience,’ the servant added. ‘Well dressed.’
‘A high official?’
‘All I can say is his clothing is fine.’
Even knowing the fellow would not be armed, Flavius fetched his sword and placed it on the desk he was using, before sitting behind it and permitting the man’s entry. Fine clothing did not do him justice and did not describe his person; well larded in a way that indicated a superior diet, he was clad in silks of exceptionally good quality, which had Flavius ask the man who had escorted him to send for Procopius.
The bow that followed was so low the man’s head was near to touching the ground, an act that was greeted in silence. Given the position was held, Flavius reckoned through uncertainty. When Procopius entered he was greeted by a quite substantial posterior and he could not resist what for him was unusual, a joke.
‘I think I know that face.’
‘Bonifatius of Caesarea greets the mighty Flavius Belisarius.’
Being aimed at the marble floor and pronounced in perfect Latin gave this declaration an ethereal quality. ‘And what does that signify?’
Flavius having spoken was obviously seen as a release for his self-imposed obsequiousness for this Bonifatius stood up to hear Procopius remark that it was a very Roman name.
‘I have ever been a friend to the empire.’
‘We have discovered so many friends to the empire since coming here,’ Flavius replied, his tone deeply ironic, ‘it is a wonder we needed to invade at all.’
‘I hazard you will find me a true one.’
‘Why?’
‘I have a tale to impart you, mighty Belisarius, that will enthral you.’
There was no change in tone. ‘I do so love a story.’
‘This one comes with a reward in gold.’
‘For you, no doubt,’ Procopius opined, he having come to join Flavius and now able to examine the round and shiny red-cheeked face. His employer indicated that he should sit.
‘You are, I suspect, Procopius, the mighty Belisarius’s assessor. When you hear what I have to say you will have much to count.’
That slightly threw Procopius who knew the term as a legal one until he realised the Bonifatius had made a joke. Given he had so recently done the same the frown was inappropriate as he demanded the man get to the point.
‘Upon hearing of you landing, King Gelimer-’
‘The usurper Gelimer,’ Flavius corrected, but softly to a reluctant nod.
‘Lord Gelimer gave certain instructions.’
‘To murder his brother, Hilderic, was one. Ammatus may have done the deed but it was Gelimer’s hand.’
Seeing that posed as a question Bonifatius was quick to say that such acts were none of his affair adding, without too much sincerity, how much they were to be regretted.
‘The Lord worried for the treasure of his family.’
‘Which we took out of his camp at Tricamarum,’ Procopius interjected.
That remark earned him the kind of smile with which a kindly parent indulges an errant child and it was not missed by the fastidious secretary, a man who reacted badly when condescended to. But even angry he did not miss the implication.
‘Are you going to tell us there is more?’
‘Naturally Lord Gelimer kept a portion with him, to be used to garner support.’
‘Bribes.’
Bonifatius shrugged. ‘It does no harm for a ruler, even a usurper, to have visible the means by which he might distribute rewards.’
‘But it was not all.’
‘I doubt your mind can encompass the success of generations of the Vandal people when it comes to the spoils of war. The main royal treasure was loaded aboard a vessel and I had instructions, should matters go against my king, that his property should be transported to Hispania where he was certain he could find refuge with the King of the Visigoths.’
‘And you have disobeyed that injunction?’ Flavius enquired.
‘Far from it, mighty Belisarius-’
‘Do stop calling me that. It irritates me.’
‘A thousand pardons humbly given.’
‘If there was such a thing and reincarnation, as some people of the east believe, this fellow would come back as a snail.’ Procopius had spoken in Greek, but the look his remark received told him this fellow spoke that language as well as he did Latin. ‘Go on.’
‘I set sail on news of his reverse at Tricamarum but ran into contrary winds which have blown us back to our native shore and we are now obliged to throw ourselves on to the mercy of the mighty — forgive me — General Belisarius.’
‘Where is this ship now? I cannot believe it is in the Hippo Regius harbour.’
‘It was not felt such a berth would be secure.’
‘For your head or what you carried?’ That got a non-committal display of open palms. ‘So you have come to treat, using the latter to preserve the former?’
‘Wise as well as mighty. I am, as you will guess, not a sailing man. I also have with me not only the master and crew, people to whom I have become attached, but members of my own family. Naturally I would want assurances of their safety before surrendering so valuable a prize.’
‘And, of course,’ Procopius remarked, his cynicism barely disguised, ‘you will hand over it all.’
‘Why would I not?’ came the reply, which was sophistry of the highest order.
Flavius had arched his fingers before his mouth, as if in deep thought, but really to hide a smile; this courtier, and he was that to the very end of his own fingertips, did not know of his intention to amnesty every Vandal or of the announcement he was about to make promulgating that throughout the old kingdom.
Procopius leant over to whisper in his ear that this rogue before them would certainly be in the process of hiding a goodly proportion of what he had been tasked to transport, which Flavius could do no more than acknowledge. But the man would have to show some caution; there would be documents somewhere that listed the plunder that the Vandals had accumulated over two centuries, as well as human memory. He would have to be careful what and how much he purloined.
‘And the ship is now where?’ A shrug that annoyed. ‘I could have you racked to find out.’
‘There is a limit to the patience the master will show should I not return.’
On considering that, it became probable that this Bonifatius knew that his late master was locked up in Medeus, or he may not be sure of that as a detail, but he was certain the Vandal hold on the kingdom was no more. If he had dipped his fingers in the pie of Gelimer’s treasure it would be a hard hoard to find. What he was being told was that he, the mighty Belisarius, would not find any of it and he thought he knew what this Bonifatius was really after.